Walking in South Knoxville 2: The William Hastie Natural Area

Years ago, when my big kids were little, any walking I did consisted of pushing a double stroller around our South Knoxville (Lake Forest) neighborhood, Emily walking at my side. I couldn’t go very fast, but I got exercise on the hills!
Occasionally, we’d make it as far as the dead end at Post Oak Road. This intrigued us, because where the road ended there were some rocks blocking a KUB access road, and we were very curious about that path and where it might lead. So curious, in fact, that when the kids were old enough to go walking sans stroller, the five of us walked it to where it ended at Margaret Lane, a little road off Sevierville Pike. Along the way we spotted a sinkhole with an abandoned car in it and the body of a raccoon frozen solid by a pond. Ah, memories.
Needless to say, things have changed at what is now officially the William Hastie Natural Area. Y’all, you are going to amazed at all the wild and empty land that’s back there. I am once again so proud of Knoxville for saving this land for all of us to enjoy instead of attempting to level the hills to plant some bland subdivisions.
That’s the sign at the end of Post Oak Road, but I wouldn’t recommend you start there. In fact, I wouldn’t even recommend you drive down there at all if you don’t live there, because not only is there nowhere to park, it will require about a 15-point turn to get yourself out of the dead end. Instead, you want to drive to the end of Margaret Lane, but be careful, because the official entrance includes a very narrow road.
You’ll find these helpful signs at every trailhead in the South Loop system. And what’s even better, there’s an app for that! Yes, there is. It’s called PDF Maps, and it’s free. You are going to want to go here for instructions and how to get it. You will show up on it as a little moving dot, so you can’t get lost!
Another tip as you start walking these trails: there are signs marking the difficulty of the trails. But pay no attention to these if you are walking. They are geared toward the bikers, and the challenges to someone riding a bike are very different. I haven’t had any trouble on trails that had the highest difficulty level.
We have done approximately half of the trails contained in the William Hastie Natural Area. Here are a few things we saw that day:
I just love taking pictures of paths. I do it almost every time we go walking.
Wildflowers are a big attraction on every path in the South Loop system so far.
These fallen trees were near the top of the trail that leads into the View Park neighborhood. There the trail system continues through Marie Myers Park, but that’s a story for another day.
Emily rescued this little fellow from possible death by bike by moving him to the side of the trail.
Here’s the pond now, with no raccoons in evidence, frozen or otherwise:
Next time, maybe I will write about the Forks of the River trails, or the Ijams trails, or maybe the ones in the private land easement near Anderson School. There are so many!
But don’t just take my word for it, y’all. Virtual tours are nice, but no substitute for actually being there, and reading about walking isn’t exercise. I started getting healthy barely over two months ago. Slight hills were torture. I started with mile-long walks on paved trails. Yesterday we did about four miles, in warm weather, with lots of evil hills. I’ve lost at least twenty pounds. and there’s great satisfaction in feeling your muscles do what God meant them to do.

Sock Religious

Stay Close to Christ

Pink Salt Riot

Kindred Forest Co

Catholics Online

Pinterest

Follow me on Twitter

Life in Every Limb on Facebook

I feel pretty good when I read this list.~ A Grandparent’s Wisdom on Parenting ~

1. Let your child be a child. Children are not little adults.

2. Don’t have too many rules, especially when they’re little. They’re not going to remember them all anyway.

3. Pick your battles. It won’t work to make an issue out of everything your child does that you don’t like.

4. The greatest gift you can give your child besides your love is your time. Whenever possible, interrupt what you are doing to take time for them. Many things you need to do can be put off until later but many things your child does only happen once, and you don’t want to miss them.

5. Don’t micromanage your child’s behavior. It isn’t necessary (or productive in the long run) to try to control everything he or she says or does.

7. Kids get tired. When they do, it’s usually futile to try to reason with them to get them to do what you want.

8. Don’t say things to your own child that you would never dream of saying to someone else’s child.

9. Whatever stage your child is in, remember: this, too, shall pass, and they will move on to another stage. (This may be better or worse than the previous one!)

10. Don’t let mealtime become a battle zone. No child has ever starved to death yet because they didn’t eat everything on their plate.

11. Read to your child.

12. When your child starts talking, listen. What they say is important to them, and kids have great things to say.

13. Spend some time tucking your child into bed each night.

14. It’s good to find a church family to help you raise your child. You need others to support you. Your child needs to establish a good foundation of values and truth. If he or she doesn’t get this early in life, they might get it later and from someone else you may not like.

15. Take time every day to enjoy your child and relish this role God has blessed you with.

(Postscript: my dad says some of these are things he did, and some are things he wishes he’d done. ❤️) …

Timeline Photos"Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you." – Luke 14 #SundayGospel bit.ly/2ZpzEtS…

"Arsonists have set God’s Cathedral aflame. In the Amazon rainforest, home to hundreds of thousands of animal species, 40,000 plant species, and nearly a million indigenous people, fires are raging, destroying the ecological buttresses of one of the most biodiverse and important ecosystems in the world. These creatures are a testament to God’s good creation, a living, breathing cathedral, shaped by the evolutionary forces of God, and entrusted to human hands." …

"Baby loss is not just a story of grief, of pain and of tears, its a beautiful story of love and of celebration.

So let’s scream from the rooftops that all children matter, those that are here and those that we desperately miss."I haven’t shared this picture for quite some time so wanted to post it again this evening. These are my children…the ones that ran ahead and the ones who I get the honour to raise.

Someone said to me in an interview recently well you are the mother of two, I kindly corrected them. I am the mother of 7, just because five of my children didn’t get to grow up on the earth, doesn’t stop them from existing.

I also wanted to say this…Baby loss is not just a story of grief, of pain and of tears, its a beautiful story of love and of celebration.

So let’s scream from the rooftops that all children matter, those that are here and those that we desperately miss. ❤️

I am so unbelievably touched that SO many people have liked and shared this image, THANK You. Please feel free to also like my page and see future posts and quotes, I would love for you to become a FB friend x